Paintball, a popular sport has developed over the years, which uses paintball markers (markers or guns), which are guns utilizing compressed gas to fire projectiles. Some examples of paintball guns are those offered under the brand names 32 DEGREES™, EMPIRE™, DIABLO™, and INDIAN CREEK DESIGNS™, and others shown and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,708,685; 4,936,282; 5,497,758; and U.S. application Ser. Nos. 11/183,548; 11/180,506; 11/150,002; 11/064,693; 10/313,465; 10/090,810, the entire contents of which are all incorporated fully herein by reference. Players use the paintball guns to shoot projectiles known as paintballs (projectiles and paintballs are used interchangeably herein). These paintballs are spherical, frangible projectiles normally having gelatin or starch-based shells filled with paint (coloring or dye). The shells break when impacting a target, allowing the paint within to splatter on the target. The sport of paintball is often played like capture the flag. A player is eliminated from the game when the player is hit by a paintball fired from an opposing player's marker. When the paintball hits a target such as a player, a mark or “splat” of paint is left on the player.
Paintball loaders (otherwise known as hoppers or magazines, and also referred to herein as “paintball loaders,” “loaders,” or “projectile loaders”) sit atop the markers and feed projectiles into the marker. These projectile loaders (the terms “hopper,” “magazine,” and “loader” are used interchangeably herein) store projectiles, and have an outlet or exit tube (out feed tube or neck). The outlet tube is connected to an inlet tube (or feed neck) of a paintball marker, which is in communication with the breech of the paintball marker. Thus, the loaders act to hold and feed paintball projectiles into the breech of a paintball marker, so that the projectiles can be fired from the marker.
Many loaders contain agitators or feed systems to mix, propel, or otherwise move projectiles in the loader. This mixing is performed by an impeller, projection, drive cone, agitator, paddle, arm, fin, carrier, or any other mechanism, such as those shown and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,213,110; 6,502,567; 5,947,100; 5,791,325; 5,954,042; 6,109,252; 6,889,680; 6,792,933; 7,445,002; 7,343,909; Ser. Nos. 61/037,819; 11/544,443; 11/548,588; and, 12/171,956, the entire contents of all of which are incorporated by reference herein. In a “gravity feed” or “agitating” loader, an agitator mixes projectiles so that no jams occur at the exit opening of the outlet tube. In a “force feed” or “active feed” paintball loader, the agitator (drive cone, carrier, paddle or any other force feed drive system) forces projectiles through the exit tube. Because it is desirable to eliminate as many opposing players as possible, paintball markers are capable of semi-automatic rapid fire. The paintball loaders act to hold a quantity of projectiles, and ensure proper feeding of the projectiles to the marker for firing.
Modern paintball loaders utilize projections, paddles, arms, carriers, drive cones, or other agitators to mix or advance paintballs. These agitators are operated by motors, which are usually electrical, and powered by a power source such as a battery.
Paintball markers and accessories have increased in performance capability and complexity over the years. Players demand high rates of fire of paintballs from the paintball markers with little or no jamming. This has led to the development of motor driven loaders that force feed paintballs to the marker. However, existing paintball markers are limited in how fast they can accelerate to a rapid firing rate by the capability of the motor driving the paintball loader. In addition, if a loader is rapidly feeding paintballs, and the paintball marker discontinues firing, the loader must be immediately stopped, primarily through a braking mechanism which, for example, stops the rotation of a feed impeller or drive cone. Such abrupt changes in the rotation rate of the loader often result in paintball jams, and subject the paintballs to undesirable forces, which can cause breakage.
A need therefore exists for a paintball loader that efficiently converts the mechanical energy present at a high feed rate into potential energy during stopping, which can then be used by the loader during rapid startups. It would be a distinct advantage to have an apparatus that increases performance of the paintball loader by decreasing the acceleration time necessary to achieve a high rotation rate for the drive cone or feed mechanism, while decreasing the undesirable forces on the loader when stopping the rotation of the drive cone or feed mechanism. It would also be advantageous to have a mechanism that can be used repeatedly without being subject to degradation or wear. It would also be advantageous to have a mechanism that can be used in any paintball loader, enabling the feed mechanism to be easily modified by the user.